Anyone who watched the Flyers when Bob was playing behind Ilya Bryzgalov knows that he simply wasn’t a good fit as Bryz’s backup.

It was an untenable situation for him, bad for his development and anything but ideal for the Flyers.

In 2011-12, as Bryz’s backup, Bobrovsky had a 3.02 GAA and .899 save percentage. He was rather unhappy here, though he worked his tail off and never complained.

For his own good, Bobrovsky, now 24, had to be moved so he could grow into a No. 1 and his destination was Columbus, who acquired him in exchange for three draft picks.

Bobrovsky’s emergence led to Steve Mason’s exile in Columbus and his eventual trade to the Flyers.

Essentially, the Flyers and Blue Jackets exchanged backup goalies and the way I see it, both teams are the better for it and both have already benefited.

Right now, Flyers fans seem rather pumped over Mason and what he might do for this club this coming fall. Truthfully, Mason has a much better chance to make an impact here – even if Bryz remains – than Bobrovsky would have.

My head hurts. That logic essentially goes like this: Bob’s growth was stunted playing behind Bryz (agreed), but trading him to Columbus and getting Columbus’ backup goaltender, Mason, who has an even longer history of not having success in the league, was the right move because now Bryz will likely be gone and Mason can blossom by becoming the number one guy, a role in which he failed miserably before, but perhaps he, too, will one day have as good of a season as Bob just had.

Fuck. You’d think Panaccio and Paul Holmgren get their paychecks from the same place or something. And you’d think I write run-on sentences.

I truly don’t understand the people who aren’t enraged by the Flyers trading away a homegrown Vezina winner. Yes, he needed to play more and wouldn’t have had the same sort of success this year in Philly. But the Flyers knew about his ability–it was obvious to anyone watching that he had a top-notch skill set. It pisses me off even more to learn that Peter Laviolette knew that:

“I didn’t know a lot about Sergei before we acquired him,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards told the Columbus Dispatch. “But after the trade was out at the draft, [Flyers coach] Peter Laviolette tapped me on the shoulder and wanted to talk.

“He just went on about Sergei Bobrovsky: ‘You’re going to love this guy. He competes. He works. He’ll help drive your team. He’s a great kid.’ That got me excited, and he was absolutely right on all of it.”

And it’s not like Bryz was a world-beater his first year here– again, it was obvious that he could be a total bust, and there’s no doubt that the Flyers knew CBA negotiations could eventually yield an amnesty clause or two. Why not keep Bob around for another year? This isn’t charity, the Flyers had no obligation to do Bob a favor, and judging by the fact that they re-signed BRIAN BOUCHER as a backup, there weren’t any better options to play behind Bryz (which can’t possibly be a safe place if you’re not wearing a cup and a mask). But no, they traded Bob, drafted a guy, Anthony Stolarz, who will maybe – but probably not – pan out, and then traded for Bob’s backup. HOW IS ANY OF THIS ACCEPTABLE? It’s the GM’s (and coach’s and that awful goalie coach’s) job to recognize what they have. Saying “no one knew Bobrovsky would be that good” is simply making an excuse for the team. IT’S THEIR JOB TO KNOW THOSE SORT OF THINGS, and when they swing and a miss – wildly – they’re at fault. There’s no way around that.

It’s the goaltending coach… Why does no one else bring it up?!? Bob was average here and would dropped to his knees once the picked crossed the blue line quicker then a Kardashian looking for a new TV pilot. He gets moved then is all of a sudden more sound fundementally and wins the Vezina

I remember calling your blogtalkradio show and saying that I didn’t want Bryz, I wanted Bob, and I was willing to have this team be a stinker for a few years while the Richards/Carter trades played out. Seriously, what the fuck is this front office doing?

This whole mess with Bob and Bryzgalov and Mason could well go down as being one the biggest clusterfucks in Flyers history. From Snider to Holmgren to Laviolette, everybody had a hand in this screw up, Columbus has a potential franchise goaltender while the Flyers have $51 million dollar white elephant who’s nuttier than a truckload of Planters, and a backup who might be a headcase as well. If the Flyers got the better end of this deal, I fail to see how.

Boy. You guys think that YOU talk bad about the Flyers. You should hear us at the annual GM meetings talk. Pretty scathing stuff, normally coalescing around the fact that you poor souls haven’t sniffed a Cup in FORTY years, while we’ve won 3, the fucking Kings, Ducks, Lightning, Flames and Hurricanes have won, and the Rangers ended their curse in time for this generation to actually acknowledge it. It’s like you guys are stuck in a 70’s time warp, or something. We laugh, like the rest of the country does at you.

The combination of Lavy jerking Bob around and shitty goalie coaching (as was mentioned above), made it impossible for Bob to succeed here. He needed to be moved in order for him to flourish.
And not to defend the Flyers in any way, but don’t forget it was a shortened year this year. The jury is still out on how Bob will perform over the course of an entire season. Remember even Lindros won a Hart trophy in a shortened year, yet he never seemed to be able to stay healthy for an entire year.

Obviously, EVERYONE is missing the point, as usual. This BOB trade was because Homer sneakily crept into Richie and Cartsys lair and captured them and sent them off to LA and CBJ. If, he would have instead, went over to BOBs Russian palace and broke bread with him and been like yo, its kewl you are the franchise goalie. Here are two poster of Riche and Cartsy for you home decor as well. EVERYTHING WOULD BE FINE. Also, how does Homer not get Suter and Weber last year. PATHETIC

I don’t normally agree with Kyle’s opinion on Flyers’ goaltending, but I have to agree with the vast majority of this post.

The BEST part, though? It now looks like Kyle will get his wish of Bryz getting bought out. And you KNOW what’s coming after that. Mason will be fucking trash in net for the Flyers, and Bryz will win the Vezina next year for the Islanders. Book it.

The ONLY way it’s acceptable to buy out Bryz is if you trade Read for Bernier. We’ll see if that happens.

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